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Geico will continue its presence within the Winter Classic and the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES |
The NHL has signed a three-year renewal with Geico in the United States, giving the auto insurance company a continued presence with many of the league’s tentpole events, including the Stanley Cup playoffs.
With the deal, Geico remains presenting partner of the playoffs for all game broadcasts on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, USA Network and NHL Network. In the first round of the postseason, NHL Network will feature game coverage from teams’ RSN partners, who will continue to carry games in addition to NBC Sports Group’s exclusive national broadcasts. NBC and its networks get exclusivity beginning in the second round.
The playoffs begin this week.
The deal also extends Geico’s role as presenting sponsor of the intermission reports on NHL Network game broadcasts in both the playoffs and the regular season, a role it’s had since 2011. In addition, Geico will continue as a sponsor of both the NHL’s Winter Classic and its Stadium Series games, receiving prominent in-ice positions and camera-visible dasherboard spots for those games as well as a presence at the accompanying fan festivals.
“Geico has been such a big and important sponsor for us at the league level, and when you couple that with what they’ve done at the club level, we’re very happy to have them back,” said Brian Cull, NHL group vice president of integrated marketing.
Geico has been a league sponsor since the 2009-10 season. It previously renewed its deal with the league in 2011, and its existing deal was set to expire.
At the team level, the company is a partner of 21 of the NHL’s 23 U.S.-based clubs. Those deals are negotiated separately from the league agreement.
Financial terms of the league deal were not disclosed. The NHL negotiated the renewal with Scout Sports & Entertainment, who was working on behalf of Geico.
For the playoffs, Geico also plans to bring back its #GEICOCupCrazy activation for the third consecutive year. The social media-driven initiative challenges fans with playoff-related trivia questions on Twitter, providing winners with prize packs. Last season, the effort (featured through both @NHL and @Geico) delivered an estimated nine million impressions, up 23 percent compared to 2014, according to the NHL.
